


Morality Didn't Split Romulus

by sunny_ghost



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is Fear, Creativitwins, Creativity Split (Sanders Sides), Deceit | Janus Sanders is Denial, Kid Sides (Sanders Sides), No Unsympathetic Sides, tw intrusive thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24567007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunny_ghost/pseuds/sunny_ghost
Summary: Morality didn't split Romulus.In fact, no one could be further from splitting Romulus.No, Morality didn't split Romulus.Why would he?No, Morality didn't split Romulus.Morality didn't split Romulus.That was for certain.No, Morality didn't split Romulus.Romulus split himself.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 75





	Morality Didn't Split Romulus

**Author's Note:**

> So basically I see a lot of stuff where Patton is the reason that Creativity split. And that's really cool, really angsty, real good stuff, but honestly? If one side were to be responsible for Creativity splitting, I think it would be Creativity himself. I mean would you just LOOK at those self-esteem issues. On the other hand? Patton? Would 100% carry the guilt for the rest of his life :))) So here's that.  
> (Pssst! The last bit of this is inspired by the song Murders by Miracle Musical. It's a fabulous song and you should really go listen to it.)

Morality didn't split Romulus.

In fact, no one could be further from splitting Romulus.

The two were absolutely inseparable. Only the bestest of friends. It was an extremely rare occasion to find one of them without the other close by. Morality loved listening to Romulus' ideas; he always had something new and interesting to share, he loved Romulus' kindness; always protective of his friends, never failing to be at their sides, but most of all he loved Romulus' boldness.

He was the first one to pick his name. The first to step up and declare that he was more than just Thomas' Creativity, no, he was King Romulus. All mighty ruler of the imagination, conqueror of the subconscious seas, and high emperor of all things grand and glorious.

Logic thought the title was a bit too much, but Morality adored it.

"It fits you perfectly!" he beamed.

"Shhhhh! Ms. Weatherby is talking," Logic chided. "Don't you want to hear the rest of the story?"

~~Creativity~~ Romulus quickly sat back down. He was truly invested in the story so far and wanted to see where it went.

Thomas was sitting in social studies class, and his 3rd-grade teacher was currently reading to them from a book of Roman mythology. "The Founding of Ancient Rome." Needless to say, all the sides, and Thomas himself, were captivated.

"Wait," said Morality, "their mom was a wolf?"

"No, their surrogate mother was a wolf,” said Logic. "I don't know if it's actually possible for a wolf to be a surrogate mother, though."

"Shut up four-eyes," said Romulus, "it's mythology, let us enjoy it!"

"Faustulous and his wife raised the twins as if they were their own sons," Ms. Weatherby continued, "and the boys quickly grew up healthy and strong. Romulus and Remus became local heroes, stopping thieves from stealing livestock and helping out in the community."

"See!" Romulus bounced on his cushion, his paper crown nearly falling off of his head. "They're heroes, just like me!"

The story went on. "To celebrate their victory over their wicked uncle, Romulus and Remus decided to build a city on the banks on the Tiber river, in the spot where the she-wolf had first found them. Their plan was a complete success, and soon, a magnificent city blanketed the seven hills near the river."

"I wanna build a city like that! Logic, you wanna help me build a city like that? You can do all the math and aristocatitacture and stuff."

"Um, sure Cre-uh, Romulus, that sounds great, but would you _please_ stop interrupting the story?!"

"Oops! Sorry."

Romulus turned back toward Ms. Weatherby.

"The twins got into a terrible disagreement. Remus wanted to name the city 'Rem,' because he had built all the temples. Romulus wanted to name the city 'Rome,' because he had built all the houses and roads. Their wolfish instincts got the better of them, and the fight quickly grew fierce. It only ended when Remus lay dead, slain by the hands of his own brother."

"Oh no!" Morality cried. "I don't want you to build a city like that if you're going to kill your brother!"

"Don't worry," said Romulus, gently taking Morality's arm. "I would never do something like that. Killing your brother is just about the most un-heroic thing a king could do!"

Morality sniffled, wiping one stray tear from his eye. "You promise?"

Romulus held up his littlest finger. "Pinky promise."

-

_Now, the city stood still. An empty monument in the middle of the imagination._

_Roman and Remus still used the castle in its center regularly, and occasionally they would fill the streets with imaginary citizens to be a part of their stories, but right now it was deserted. The only living thing in sight (if you could count a side as being alive) was Logan._

_He was sitting on the edge of the fountain in the town square. Of course, it wasn't actually a square. It was a decagon, exactly 30 feet across with an area of 731.069 feet and a circumference of 97.4759 feet. He still remembered the blueprints off by heart, pardon the expression._

_Each tile that paved the ground was exactly 6 inches across and 6 inches wide, which meant that two tiles put together was exactly one foot, which meant that if one wanted, one could pace back and forth across the (not) square counting the measurements as they walked for hours and hours on end._

_This was what Logan had been doing just a few moments earlier, before his feet grew too sore to ignore and he was forced to sit down. He stared at the stone tiles on the ground beneath him._

_He had been so proud of this square—square as in the town plaza, not the shape. They had both been proud of it._

_Thomas had just learned what a decagon was, and Logan had been aching to put that knowledge to use. Naturally, he was thrilled when Romulus had suggested they use the shape for the city's main plaza._

_Now...he didn't know how to feel about it. That was no surprise, he was never any good at feeling anyways. Besides, he didn't come here to feel. He came here to think._

_A rolling thunder of muffled voices came from the sky above._

_Oh no. Looked like his thinking was going to be interrupted for now. The others were arguing again. This was probably about Thomas missing Joan's reading last night._

_Roman's voice drifted down from the living room._

_"...This senseless bickering never gets us anywhere!"_

_Logan sighed. As some might say, "duty calls."_

_"On the contrary," he said, rising up to correct Roman's falsehood, "bickering amongst ourselves is historically how we've resolved...all of Thomas' issues."_

_The city square, and the rest of his thinking, would have to wait for later._

-

No, Morality didn't split Romulus.

Why would he? He cared for his friends, and he cared for Thomas. His job was to be nice! And for Thomas to be nice too.

Usually, that was fairly easy, but being nice meant no lying. And Thomas had lied.

"You know why it's bad, Denial! Thomas lied straight to Mom's face! Now Shea is getting punished for something that Thomas did. It's all our fault!"

"Oh come on, Morality, stop being such a baby," Denial sneered. "It was only one cookie, and Shea had more cookies than Thomas in the firsst place anyways. You saw him steal that chocolate chip one just like I did. He deservesss to be punished."

"No!" Morality was full-on shouting now. "Thomas is the older brother! He's supposed to look out for Shea, not hurt him!"

Romulus shivered from his hiding spot. His stomach twisted more and more as he eavesdropped on their argument. This was his fault. Morality didn't know what Romulus had done. It was his idea to steal the cookie, not Denial's. If he hadn't had the idea in the first place then Denial wouldn't have lied to Mom and then Morality wouldn't be so angry right now.

This wasn't his first bad idea either.

_What if Thomas tried biting into the glue stick he was holding?_

_What if Thomas tried taking a nap in the bathtub?_

_What if Thomas jumped off the swing when it was at the very top?_

The bad ideas just kept piling up. He hadn't actually _done_ any of them yet, and he wouldn't even _dare_ to tell the others about them, but now this one had gotten out. Thomas had stolen that cookie.

This was all his fault.

No, Morality didn't split Romulus.

-

_"Not guilty!" Patton beamed, his cheery voice radiating with optimism and confidence. Of course, Thomas wasn't guilty, he was Thomas._

_"...Nooot guilty?" Thomas squirmed in his seat. Obviously not as sure._

_"Ooh!" said Deceit. "Said with the confidence of a man who has his hand stuck in the cookie jar, in a cookie factory, and his pants are down, and they're on fire."_

_Something soured in Roman's stomach. His hand...stuck in the cookie jar..._

_Something flickered on the edge of his memory, just out of reach._

_He quickly pushed it away. It was probably nothing. Besides, he was a judge right now. He had important duties to attend to._

_"Ah, prosecution?" he said, swallowing down the knot in his throat and glancing at his notes again. "Your opening statement?"_

_No time for half-baked memories right now. The show must go on._

-

Morality didn't split Romulus.

That was for certain. In fact, he had been looking for Romulus that day. He was bored and wanted to play, so of course, he sought out Romulus first.

"Looogiiiic," he sing-songed, "have you seen Romulus anywhere?"

Logic didn't even look up from the book he was reading. "No, I haven't seen him since he sulked off last night."

Morality stopped in his tracks. "Since he what?"

Logic looked up, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Sulked. It's a new word Thomas learned last week. Sulk: to be silent, morose, and bad-tempered out of annoyance, disappointment, or sadness."

"Oh," said Morality, his heart dropping into his belly, "do you know why he sulked?"

"I don't know exactly, but he did look pretty upset after your argument with Denial yesterday."

Morality felt his heart sink even further. Oh no.

Without another word, he ran to Romulus' room, not listening as Logic called after him. He flung open the door to find the room empty and cold. Cold because a harsh wind was blowing in from the empty entrance to the imagination. Oh no oh no oh no.

Morality ran through the open door, the chilled air biting at the bare skin on his arms.

"Romulus?!" No answer.

The usually-blue sky was cloudy, choked by big gray storm clouds that were gathering into one point. In the middle of the forest behind the city. Romulus was in the forest.

"Romulus!"

Morality ran. He ran as fast as he possibly could. Through gates, through the city, past the fountain, around the castle, and out the gates again. His lungs burned and his throat was hoarse and his legs hurt like nothing else had ever hurt before but Morality didn't care. In fact, he hardly even thought about it until he reached the edge of the woods. And even then, standing at the line where the rolling hills stopped and the thick trees began, he still didn't care.

He only hesitated for a second before barreling on.

"ROMULUS!"

Morality pushed through bushes and jumped over logs, always keeping an eye on the storm ahead. He started to slow down, the weight of his own legs finally getting to him, but he didn't stop. Not until he crashed into someone, that is.

"Ouch!" screamed Denial, "watch where you're going!" He quickly detangled himself from Morality and pushed himself off the ground. "What do you think you're doing, running into..." he trailed off as he looked back at Morality's face. "Holy crap, you're crying."

Really? Morality hadn't noticed. He sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes, smearing his face with dirt.

"Don't say that," he said weakly, his voice cracking. "It's a bad word."

"Bad sshmad," he said, offering Morality an outstretched hand. "If I were you, I'd be more concerned about those scratches on your knees."

Morality took Denial's hand and stood to his feet, and sure enough, he did have some impressive scrapes on his knees.

"That doesn't matter," he said. "Romulus is missing."

Denial stared at him quizzically. "Missing? Why would…" Denial turned, looking up at the gathering storm ahead. "Oh."

"ROMULUS!!!"

"rOMULUSSS!"

They were both running now. Running so fast that they barely noticed the forest growing thicker, the moss growing darker, the bushes growing pricklier. They ran and ran and ran until Denial spotted a break of light through the trees up ahead.

"Look!" He wheezed through leaded breaths. "Clearing...up...ahead!"

Sure enough there it was, the center of the woods, with a spiral of bubbling storm clouds brewing above it.

But they were too late.

A giant crack of lightning struck the ground, just out of sight. The force shook the earth and bent the trees, causing Morality and Denial to fall over once more. It was so loud that they almost didn't hear it. They just felt the pain of it screaming in their ears. Then all of a sudden it was silent again.

Unnervingly, unnaturally silent. 

The sky cleared remarkably quickly, and a stray beam of sunlight stung Morality in the eye as he struggled to get to his feet again. Denial followed suit.

"What...wasss that?"

Morality hardly even heard him."Romulus?"

He slowly, cautiously, continued walking towards the clearing, and Denial followed.

They were almost to the break in the trees when Morality heard a shuffling sound to his right.

Sitting half-hidden in a pile of fallen leaves was a boy in tattered black clothing. He had his arms wrapped around his knees, and his other six spider-like limbs spread around him as if to stabilize him. With the way he was shaking, it looked like he needed the extra support.

"Fear?" asked Denial, surprisingly gently. "What are you doing here?"

Fear looked up at them with eyes so wide you would've thought that he saw a ghost. 

His voice shook when he talked, in a weird, thundery way that made it sound like he had two voices. "He...they…" He trailed off, and weakly raised one spidery leg to point at the clearing ahead.

Morality didn't need to hear anything else. 

He ran again, breaking through the trees into a mossy circle of sunlight. As his eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden brightness, he took in the view in front of him. A single, tall, pointed rock stood in the center of the clearing. Dandelions grew in spattered patches here and there across the soft, mossy ground. It looked picture perfect…

Except for the fact that Romulus wasn't there.

Instead, there were two boys, one dressed in black, one dressed in white. They were laughing, as if one of them had just told a brilliant joke. One said something to the other, and the other said something back, and then they both jumped up and began to run. They were playing tag. One tackled the other. He laughed and they tumbled around on the ground for a little while. Then they both jumped up and began again. It looked like they were having a lot of fun.

They didn't even notice Morality standing there.

"...Romulus?"

Nobody heard him. Nobody answered.

Before he knew what was happening he had fallen to his knees. His vision was blurry and his mouth was salty and his throat hurt. He must be crying again. Somewhere behind him there was a voice. Denial. And then someone else. Fear. And then...Logic? Logic was here too. His legs hurt. His legs really hurt. And his chest hurt. And his hands hurt. And his knees hurt. And his lungs hurt. And his head hurt. He hurt. He hurt really bad. It hurt really bad…

Romulus.

Romulus was gone.

Then everything went dark.

…

No, Morality didn't split Romulus.

Romulus split himself.

-

_Patton took a deep breath. They were talking about Just Like Heaven. Only Just Like Heaven. They didn’t have to worry about...anything else._

_Everything was fine._

_"Of course she wasn't a ghost! Ghosts are evil. Except for Moana's grandmother."_

_"Well if there's one thing I know, Reese Witherspoon is not evil…"_

_He trailed off._

_Remus._

_Roman and Remus._

_Remus and Roman._

_Remus behind Roman._

_He had to warn him. He had to warn Roman. Roman…_

_He couldn't. He couldn't talk. He couldn't move. He couldn't...anything. He was frozen._

_So he watched._

_He watched as the morning star came down on Roman's head with a clang._

_He watched as Roman slumped to the floor at his feet._

_He watched as Remus' grin only grew, tainted twisting from ear to ear._

_He watched as his worst fear came true._

_Somewhere, deep down inside him, a promise broke. Somewhere, deep down inside him, he knew it was his fault._

_"You killed him!"_

-

Morality didn't split Romulus.

But he blamed himself for it.


End file.
